Carbon dioxide is an attractive C1 building block in organic synthesis as it is highly functional, abundant, inexpensive, non toxic, and non flammable. As petroleum reserves are depleted, the development of efficient catalytic processes employing CO2 as a feedstock has become increasingly important as evidenced by the intense research in this area in recent years. However, due to CO2's inert nature, efficient catalytic processes for chemical fixation remain elusive. Thus, in addition to the practical merit, chemical CO2 fixation remains a significant synthetic challenge. One of the most promising methodologies in this area has been the synthesis of cyclic carbonates via the metal-catalyzed coupling of CO2 and epoxides (eq. 1). (See, Darensbourg, D. J.; Holtcamp, M. W. Coord. Chem. Rev. 1996, 153, 155-174.) Cyclic carbonates are valuable as monomers, aprotic polar solvents, pharmaceutical/fine chemical intermediates, and have found uses in many biomedical applications. In recent decades numerous catalyst systems have been developed for this transformation. (See, e.g., Darensbourg, supra; Ratzenhofer, M.; Kisch, H. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. Engl. 1980, 19, 317-318; Kihara, N.; Hara, N.; Endo, T. J. Org. Chem. 1993, 58, 6198-6202; Kawanami, H.; Ikushima, Y. Chem. Commun. 2000, 2089-2090; Aida, T.; Inoue, S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1983, 105, 1304-1309; Baba, A.; Nozaki, T.; Matsuda, H. Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn. 1987, 60, 1552-1554.) While the advances have been significant, all such systems suffer from either low catalyst stability/reactivity, air sensitivity, the need for co-solvent, and/or the requirement for high pressures and/or high temperatures. For example, a mixed-metal Mg/Al oxide is a reported catalyst system which operates at a reasonable CO2 pressure (5 atm) but requires a substantial amount of solvent (85% v/v DMF) and takes 24 h at 100° C. to convert just 0.28 g of propylene oxide in 88% yield and 92% selectivity, even with a very high catalyst loading of 1.8 g catalyst/g of substrate. (See, Yamaguchi, K.; Ebitani, K.; Yoshida, T.; Yoshida, H.; Kaneda, K. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1999, 121, 4526-4527.) 